Giving families SOME TIME OUT

A short break can make a world of difference

- ASTHA GUPTA

After unwrapping her birthday gifts, my daughter Hannah hugged me. 'Happy birthday, sweetheart,' I said.

It was October 2013 and Hannah's 17th birthday, but we were celebrating at hospital as I lay in a bed.

Three days earlier, an MRI had revealed a mass on my right side. Doctors needed to operate to find out what it was, and the procedure was on Hannah's birthday.

Afterwards, I was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine.

'It is palliative,' the oncologist said at my bedside, with my husband David, then 48, there too.

'We don't know what that means,' David replied.

'Sorry, but it's Stage 4, and there is no hope,' he replied.

We were shellshocked.

'Chemo will buy you some time,' the doctor said.

'How much time?" I asked.

David and I were numb as the doc said I might have up to 12 months.

We had to tell Hannah and her siblings, Hunter, then 18, and Eden, 13.